"Fall back! Now! Everyone, get out of here!"
Explosions of pure energy erupted all around. Seeing the chaos unfolding before them, Tony Stark and Nick Fury had no choice but to assist in the evacuation of civilians.
If something were to happen to the gathered world leaders here, it would be a catastrophe the United States could not afford to bear.
The President had not originally intended for things to escalate to this point, but greed often clouds judgment. The technology Garus possessed was too great a prize to ignore—it was worth the risk.
As the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth, the President had long harbored a grand ambition: to establish a Planetary Federation—a truly unified world government, rather than the ineffective United Nations, which he merely viewed as a tool.
However, the current capabilities of the U.S. government were insufficient to achieve this vision. But if he could seize the advanced alien technology in Garus' possession, his dream could quickly become a reality, allowing them to focus all efforts on countering the impending invasion.
His confidence largely stemmed from Captain Marvel. With her ability to manipulate energy—absorbing and redirecting attacks—combined with Doctor Doom's mastery of magic, the odds seemed to be in his favor.
...
A pulsating anti-magic barrier protected Garus from Victor Von Doom's arcane assaults, while his other hand cast Death's Grasp, tendrils of necrotic energy coiling around Captain Marvel, trying to pull her toward him.
Planting her feet firmly on the ground, Captain Marvel raised both hands. The deathly energies, instead of consuming her, swirled into her palms, coalescing into a crackling sphere of energy.
"Take it back!"
She hurled the energy sphere back at Garus, colliding with his shield in a brilliant explosion.
He quickly realized a fundamental truth: frost, death, blood—any form of energy-based attack—could be absorbed by her and turned against him.
The battle between the three shattered the very foundations of the base, reducing it to a massive crater. Reinforced metal plating was now nothing more than useless debris.
Two beams of white energy surged from Doctor Doom's hands, streaking toward Garus.
"Get lost!" Garus snarled, countering Doom's assault with a punch. Doom was sent flying, only to find himself ensnared moments later by a prison of bone, trapping him in place.
Wasting no time, Garus pivoted toward Captain Marvel, throwing a devastating punch.
She moved sluggishly, yet each time, she managed to evade at the last possible moment.
"Boom!" The bone prison shattered, and Doctor Doom soared back into the fray, interposing himself between Garus and Captain Marvel to engage in close combat once more.
From the safety of his command center, the U.S. President watched the battle unfold via live surveillance feeds. He turned to a nearby agent and asked, "Have the communications been jammed?"
"Yes, Mr. President. At this moment, even Mr. Stark is unable to contact the outside world."
"I'm not worried about him. His interests align with the government. Without our support, his company would have never had the funding to develop his Iron Man suits."
The President had hesitated before making this decision, but now, seeing how things were unfolding, he felt reassured.
"Danvers, what are you waiting for? Take his hard drive. But don't kill him—I don't want any unnecessary complications." He barked his orders into the earpiece.
Captain Marvel didn't appreciate his tone, but she had little choice but to comply.
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom pressed his assault against Garus, employing bursts of lightning to paralyze him momentarily.
Suddenly, an immense surge of energy enveloped both Garus and Doom.
With a thunderous explosion, a mushroom cloud bloomed in the distance.
"Damn it, don't let the hard drive get destroyed!" the President cursed as the blinding light seared his vision.
As the dust settled, two figures lay amidst the wreckage. The blast had been powerful—Doctor Doom was sprawled on the ground, utterly drained, cursing under his breath.
After testing the waters, Garus had discerned Captain Marvel's core strength: her mastery over energy. Be it magic or any other special form of energy, it all fell under her dominion.
"Game over. Now, it's time I had a little chat with the President."
Reaching into a rift in space, Garus retrieved Frostmourne. The Reality Stone embedded in its hilt pulsed with a crimson glow, instantly dispersing the energy Captain Marvel had been gathering.
With a single swing of his blade, the very laws governing Captain Marvel and Doctor Doom's bodies were rewritten. Their forms contorted, shifting into writhing masses of flesh, leaving only their heads intact—an almost comical sight.
Despite their immense power, they stood no chance against the might of an Infinity Stone. More importantly, they had no knowledge of how to counter it.
Staring at the looming figure of Garus, Doctor Doom sensed imminent doom. "H-Hey, Garus, what are you doing?"
"What else? Converting you into undead. You're both quite powerful—wasting that potential would be a shame."
"Wait! I have critical information for you!" Doom blurted out.
"Garus, don't kill us! We were only following the President's orders! All we wanted was the alien technology you possessed!"
The looming specter of death had them both in a panic.
The suffocating aura of necromancy edged closer to Doom's head. Seeing that Garus remained unmoved, he finally shouted, "Thanos! Mephisto! And another powerful being have joined forces! You need my knowledge—I have a way to deal with Mephisto!"
Garus hesitated. "Thanos is recruiting allies? And Mephisto is in another plane—without the Space Stone, he shouldn't be able to travel here easily."
The hellish dimension Mephisto resided in was separated from this one by vast cosmic barriers. If he could travel freely, he would have manifested in his true form long ago.
"No! It's difficult, but not impossible! For beings at the Skyfather level and above, dimensional pathways are too fragile. Unless reinforced, their mere presence would destabilize them, causing them to fall into the depths of the multiverse. Thanos is only a quasi-Skyfather, so with caution, he can cross over."
Garus narrowed his eyes. "So, Thanos has a way to bring Mephisto here?"
"Exactly. He only needs to perform a demonic ritual to create a stable spatial conduit. That requires a massive number of souls—which, for Thanos, is no issue."
It made sense. Thanos knew that he alone couldn't wrest the Infinity Stones from Garus' grasp. He must have struck a deal.
"And who is the third entity?"
"I don't know. I overheard it while infiltrating Mephisto's palace. They only mentioned a powerful being from another realm."
Garus frowned. If it was Cytorrak of the Crimson Cosmos, things would get ugly. He was far beyond even the five primordial cosmic entities.
And if it wasn't Cytorrak... it wouldn't be someone weak either.
Things were about to get complicated.
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TN: This fanfic has been fully translated and is available on my Patreon —— PATREON.COM / PRIMALDEMON